Grosvenor Bridge

Not to be confused with Grosvenor Bridge (Chester).

Grosvenor Bridge, originally known as, and alternatively called Victoria Railway Bridge, is a railway bridge over the River Thames in London, between Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge. Originally constructed in 1860, and widened in 1865 and 1907, the bridge was extensively rebuilt and widened again in the 1960s as an array of ten parallel bridges. There are now eight tracks across the bridge.

Grosvenor Bridge
Grosvenor Bridge with Vauxhall in the background and Battersea Power Station to the right
Coordinates	51°29′05″N 0°08′51″W
Carries	Railway
Crosses	River Thames
Locale	London, England
Named for	Sir Richard Grosvenor
Maintained by	Network Rail
Preceded by	Chelsea Bridge
Followed by	Vauxhall Bridge
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
Total length	283.5 m (930 ft 1 in)
Width	54 m (177 ft 2 in)
Longest span	53.3 m (174 ft 10 in)
History
Opened	1860 (1860); rebuilt 1963–1967 (1967)
Location

History

The original bridge was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century in two stages: the first bridge was built by the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway between 1859 and 1860 at a cost of £84,000 to carry two tracks into Victoria Station; it was the first railway bridge across the Thames in central London. The engineer was Sir John Fowler.

The bridge was widened by four tracks on the eastern side for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway between 1865 and 1866, at a cost of £245,000. Sir Charles Fox was the engineer.

In 1907 the bridge was widened again with a further track, on the western side, for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.

In 1963–1967, the structure of the bridge was completely renewed and modernized, leaving only the cores of the original piers. At the same time, a tenth track was added in a space formerly used for gas mains. To minimize disruption to traffic, each track was renewed separately, and put back into service before the next one was closed. The designer for this work was Freeman Fox & Partners, and the project engineer was A. H. Cantrell, chief civil engineer of the Southern Region of British Rail. It was said to be the busiest railway bridge in the world with 1000 trains crossing per day in 1968.

Location

On the north bank is Pimlico to the north and east and Chelsea to the west; the Lister Hospital and the Royal Chelsea Hospital lie immediately to the north west. On the south bank is Nine Elms to the east and Battersea to the west. Battersea Power Station is immediately to the south of the bridge, and Battersea Park to the south west.

See also

• Crossings of the River Thames
• List of bridges in London

References

Sources

• Fox, C. D. (1868). "On the Widening of the Victoria Bridge and Approaches to the Victoria Station, and on New Railways at Battersea. (Includes Plates and Appendix)". Minutes of the Proceedings. 27 (1868): 68. doi:10.1680/imotp.1868.23118.
• Grolier (1968). The Year Book 1968.
• Wilson, W. (1868). "Description of the Victoria Bridge, on the Line of the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway. (Includes Plate and Appendix)". Minutes of the Proceedings. 27 (1868): 55. doi:10.1680/imotp.1868.23117.
• "Reconstruction of the Grosvenor Bridge" (PDF). The Railway Magazine: 533–4, 542. August 1963., republished with permission via https://sremg.org.uk
• "Railway Bridge Across the Thames". www.youtube.com. British Railways Board. Video of 1960s reconstruction

Further reading

• Kerensky, O. A.; Partridge, F. A. (1967). "The Reconstruction of the Grosvenor Railway Bridge. (over the River Thames)". ICE Proceedings. 36 (4): 721. doi:10.1680/iicep.1967.8471.

External links

• Grosvenor Bridge, Southern E Group
• Grosvenor Bridge at Structurae
• Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide